Manually and pneumatically operated automatic piano.



No. 884,320. PATENTED APR. 7, 1908.

- J. w. DAVIS. MANUALLY AND PNBUMATIOALLY OPERATED AUTOMATIOPIANO,

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.25.1906.

; 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 No. 884,320. PATENTED APR. 7, 1908;

J. w. DAVIS.

MANUALLY AND PNYYL 'IILATIOALLY OPERATED AUTOMATIC PIANO. APPLIOATIOAN I'ILBDfiPT. 25. 1906.

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' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W. DAVIS, OF PULASKI, TENNESSEEASSIGNOR, BY )iESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE DAVIS PIANO PLAYER COMPANY, OF PL'LASKI, TENNESSEE, A CORPORATION OF TENNESSEE.

MANUALLY AND PNEUMATIGALLY OPERATED AUTOMATIC PIANO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 7, 1908.

Application filed September 25, 1906. Serial No. 336,210.

To all whom it may concern:

. Be it known that I, JOHN W. DAVIS, citizen of the United States, residing atPulaski,

in the county of Giles and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Manually and Pneumatically O erated Automatic Pianos, of which the fo owing is a specification.

This invention contemplates improvements in that class of automatic piano players which may be operated both automatically and manually without interference between t-he two operations, and the object of the invention is to provide an automatic piano action which maybe incorporated in or embodied with a piano of any ordinary structure without necessitating any changes in the ordinary action and without interference in any wise with the manual operation of the piano at all times.

I A further ob'ect of the invention is to provide means w ereby the automatic action may be swung out of the way of the ordinary action without the necessity of wholly de tachin the automatic action from the piano case, t 1e arrangement being such that the wind chest carrying the pneumatics or the other automatic action may be swung outwardly and upwardly out of the way, so that access may be had to the strings for the purpose of tuning the piano, or to the ordinary action for the purpose of repair orthe like;

With this and other ob'ects in view as will more readily appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists in certain constructions, arrangements and combinations of the parts hereinafter described and particul'arl pointed out in the appended claims.

- P br a full description of the invention and the merits thereof and also to acquirea knowledge of the details of construction of the means for effecting the result, reference is to be had. to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which:

F igure 1 is a vertical sectional v ew, with parts in side elevation, of a portion of a piano embod ing the improvements of my inven' tion. ig. 2 is aview on an enlarged scale, partly in section and partly in side elevation, of the wind chest of my im rovementillua trating the manner in whicv is hinged to Fig. 3.is a'detail perspecthe piano case. a v tive view of the auxiliary automatic wippen nvention.

Corresponding and like parts are referred toin the followin description and indicated in all the views of the drawings by the same reference characters.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates a key lever mounted in the usual manner in the key bed; 2 the capstan screw of the key lever 3 the extension bearing upon said screw and pivotally connected at its up er end to the'wippen 1; 5 the trigger or j ac pivotally mounted upon the wi pen 4 and designed for engagement with the utt 6 of the hammer 7; 8 the hammer rest rail; 9 the strings, and 10 the damper. All of these parts may be of any desired construction and arrangement as they form no essential parts of my invention by themselves.

The wind chest 1 1 of my improvement may be provided with any of the ordinary forms of diaphragm neumatics and valves 12 for governing the action of the bellows pneuniatics 13 and the latter may be secured in, the ordinary way by means of mechanical trackers 14 to the front end of the auxiliary wippens 15 for the respective main wippens 4. These auxiliary wippens and their concomitant parts constitute one of the essential features of the invention. The auxiliary wippens 15 are ivotally mounted at their rear ends on the racket arms 16 secured to the felt covered beam or rail 17 which extends from end to end of the piano action and is detachably secured in any desired manner, as upon the su porting ledge 18. This rail 17 is preferably hraced at intervals along its length by means of the brackets 19 secured thereto and to the key bed as shown best'in Fig. 1. r

20 designates an abutment railcarryin a series of felt covered abutments ,21 carrie which constitutes one of the features of the upon adjustable screws 22 working through the rail and adapted to limit the upward movement of the auxiliary wipp'ens 15.

Each of the wippens 15 carries an auxiliary jack or trigger23 which is pivotally mounted thereupon as illustrated best in Fig. 3 and which extends rearwardly and upwardly, with its upper end (covered byfelt 24) normally in engagement with the front .end of the main wippen 4,2zisillustratedin 1. As shown in this view of the (h'awings, the

end of the auxiliary jack 23 lies underneath the end of the wippen at in position to raise the wi pen and actuate the hammer 7 when t e aiLiiliary wippen 15 is raised by its pneumatic 13, and a guide pin projects upwardly from the free end of the ack 23 and bears upon the front end of the w-ippen 4 so as to properly guide the jack 23 at all times. The compression spring 26 connects the pivotal jack 23 with the auxiliary wippen 15 and draws the jack towards the wippen so as to always maintain it in proper position in effective action upon the main wippen 4.. A screw 27 works through the auxiliary wippen 15 at an oblique angle as shown, and is designed to limit the relative movement of the auxiliary jack 223 towards the wippen 15.

From the foregoing description in connection with the accompanying drawings,- it will be seen that the actuation of the pneumatic 13 will cause auxiliary wippen 15 to rise and press its jack 23 upwardly against the main wippen 4 so as to actuate the hammer [against the strings. It is manifest that the automatic action described interferes in no wise with the manual actuation of any of the keys land that no part of the main or ordinary action of the piano requires change in construction or arrangement to embody my imgrpved automatic action in v the piano case. hither the automatic action or the manual action may be effected without the one interfering in any wise with the other, and it is to be particularly noted that if the neumat-ic action of any one or more of the eys is brought into play while such keys are in a depressed position from the manual actuation, no injurious or unlocked for effect will be produced, because the guide stems 25 will not permit the a 'liary jack 23; to pass underneath the wit-tens and strike them at any point closer to the extension 3, which would manifestly occur ifthese guide stems 25 were not provided, owing to the are which the auxiliary wippen describes.

Another feature of the invention consists of the manner of mounting the wind chest 11. Referring particularly .o 2, it will be seen that the wind chest.is provided at its rear with a series of superposed supporting rails 28 which are connected to one member of a hinge 29, the other member oisaid hinge being secured in any desired manner to the case of the instrument. The metallic tubes 30 leading to tl e respective compartments of the wind chest in communication with the pallets 12 are secured to their respective trac upwardly and over the top of the wind chest and thence forwardly with their front ends,

inserted over a horizontally extending series of tubes 32 rigidly secured in the auxiliary or intermediate tracker board 33 andproer tubes 31 and these tubes are brought.

jecting forwardly and rearwardly from said board. The tubes 31 may be permanently attached at their front ends to theLrearwardly projecting ends of the tubes 32, and to the forwardly irojecting ends of these tubes 32, the flexi le tubes 34 are secured, said latter tubes extending forwardly and downwardly to the main tracker board 35 over which the perforated web or roll passes in the ordinary manner. 7 i

36 designates the wind trunk which is in communication with the several compart.

ments of the wind chest and through which the air is drawn from said compartments, the lower end of this wind trunk being operatively'connected to the main bellows (not shown) by any suitable connection such as that shown at 37.

' By mounting the wind. chest 11 as above described, it is evident that the entire automatic action maybe swung outwardly and upwardly out of the case so as to leave the ordinary piano action in plain'view and in convenient access for purposes of repair or other attention, it being only necessary for this'swinging movement of the wind chest and other parts oi the automatic action, to unscrew the rail Til? and swing the entire automatic action on twardly and upwardly as a whole, or to uncouple the tracker rods 14 so that the rail 17 andxt-he wi pens carried thereby may be removed and die wind chest then swung up overthe top of the piano case. It is therefore manifest that not only does my improvement or invention provide means whereby the automatic action may be applied to any upright piano without any change in the construction or arrangement of the main parts thereof, but it lso provides means whereby the automatic action may be readily SR .ing out oi. the way of the ordinary manual action when it is desired to obtain aces s to the latter, while when the automatic action is in place, the piano may be played either automatically or manually wit iout one operation interfering in any wise with the other.

Asone specific means for operatively connecting the wind trunk 36 to the main bellows in such a manner that the wind. trunk itself may be swung upwardly and outwardly with the wind chest, reference is to be had to Fig. As shown in this view of the drawings, the wind trunk is constructed in two sections of which the section 37 that is designed to connect with the bellows in any suitable manner, is a'stationary section, and

is joined with the section 36 above it on a diagonal line as shown, so that the upper sec tion 36 may be swung upwardly and outwardly with the wind chest as is manifest.

hen the parts are in position, as shown in Fig. 2, that is, with the wind chest and the wind trunk in operative position, the two sectionsof the expression box are preferably i clamped together .by means of tie bolts 38 extending through apertured lugs or stra s 39 secured to the respective sections as s own and attached, detached, and tightened, by means of thumb nuts, or the like, 40. v

. In dotted lines in Fig. 2, and indicated by the reference numeral 41, is indicated a I hinged flap'for throttling the airpassage constituted by the wind trunk to a greater or less degree to change the expression, and 42 designates the actuating-rod connected to said flap and-actuated in any desired manner, although preferably by the means thatare disclosed in my ,companion application executed of even date herewith.

As has been stated, my improvements herein described enable the piano to be operated either automatically or manually, or both automatically and manually at the same time, so that a duet or trio may be played upon the piano, thd players hands.

performing one part and the automatic action the other part. If desired, the manual action may be prevented by means of locking mechanism for the key levers. In the present instance, the means to accomplish this end is illustrated in Fig. 1 and is shown as consisting of a rail 43 extending from end toend of the piano case above the key levers 1 .at the rear of their fulcra,'said rail being adapted to rest upon the rear ends of the key levers so as to prevent them from being raised at their rear ends and de ressed from their key ends. This rail may e secured at its ends and intermediate of its len th to hell crank levers 44, or similar devices l ulcrumed on suitable su ports 45. One arm of these levers .44 may, e connected'to the push or pull rods 45 that extend through the case to the front thereof at any convenient oint within reach of the operator. It is evi ent that by manipulating these push rods or pull rods, as

the case maybe, the rail 43 may be raised out of contact at their rear ends to permit the' keys to be depressed or swung into engagement with the rear ends of the key levers to prevent manual actuation of the keys'whenever desired.

' Having thus described the invention, what .is claimed as new is:

' 1. The combination with a piano action embodying a wippen, and a jack carried thereby, of an auxiliary wippen pivotally mounted adjacent one end of the main wippen, an auxiliary jack pivotally mounted on.

said auxiliary wippen and extending rearwardly and upwardly with its end normally,

in engagement with the front end of the main wippen, a spring connected to the auxiliary wippen and to said j ask and tending to draw 0 the auxiliary jack rearwardly and downwardly towards the auxiliary wippen, and a guide stem carriedby' the upper end of said auxiliary jack and extending upwardly and adapted to bear against the rear end of the 5 main wippen, as and for the purpose set forth.

2. 'The combination with a piano action embodying a main wippen anda jack carried thereby, of an auxiliary wippen pivotally mounted adjacent one end of the main wip-,

pen, an auxiliary jack pivotally mounted on said auxiliary wippen and sprin pressed towards the latter, one end of t e auxiliary jack being designed to engage and lift the -main wippen, and a guide stem carried by the said auxiliary jack and engaging an end of the main wippen, as and for the purpose set forth.

3: In combination with a piano action embodying a main wippen and a jack carried thereby, of an auxiliary wippen, a support on in the auxiliary wippen and against which the auxiliary jack is adapted to abut to limit its independent movement in one direction on the auxiliary wippen.

'4. In an instrument of the character de scribed, the combination with its action, a wind chest, and means whereby the wind r00 chest may automatically operate the action of a wind trunk secured to said wind chest, the Wind trunk being constructed in sections of which one is relatively stationary and the other movable with the wind chest, said sections being adapted to abut against each other, means for clamping the abutting ends of said sectionstogether, the said means being detachable, and means whereby-the wind chest with the one section securedtoit'maym' be swung away from the other section.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in piesenceof two witnesses.

JOHN W. DAVIS.

Witnesses:

EUNIQE O. FREEMAN, BEN CHILDE-Rs. 

